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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics [PDF], last month our economy added 243,000
jobs. And one of the fast growing sectors? Hospitality. From that
same report:

Over the month, employment in leisure and hospitality increased
by 44,000, primarily in food services and drinking places
(+33,000). Since a recent low in February 2010, food services
has added 487,000 jobs.

And that’s a trend likely to continue. The National Restaurant
Association recently forecast overall restaurant sales
in 2012 will be $632 billion – a 3.5 percent increase from 2011,
with total employment expected to be 12.9 million.

So now is a good time to work for a restaurant – whether you’re
young and just getting started in the workforce or older and
trying to return after a layoff. In my 10 years working in the
business – five of them as a server – I’ve learned a few things
about what makes a restaurant tick and, more importantly, what
makes its employees more money…

1. Go corporate

You generally have two options: a mom-and-pop or a corporate
chain. In my experience, you should always go corporate. Here’s
why:

It will be busier. Empty restaurants
don’t bode well for tip earners. If it’s slow, you might be
sent home. Or worse: made to stay and make no money. While
there are obviously plenty of exceptions, in my experience
chain restaurants are typically busier than nearby
mom-and-pops.

It will be busier more often. The
brand-name corporate restaurant has a steady stream of tables
getting filled because it has to – or else it shuts down. A
mom-and-pop restaurant can often get by with less, because
there’s no corporate parent setting a minimum profit margin.
And that minimum is typically more than what mom-and-pops need
to pay their bills.

It will be more likely to give you
benefits. I’ve gotten full health insurance with
dental and vision for less than $100 a month, and I was
averaging only 25 hours a week. Not many smaller restaurants
can afford plans like that.

2. Be nice to the guests

The people who will be tipping you might get mean sometimes. Suck
it up. It’s what you’re paid to do.

Your only priority is the guest. If a guest is unhappy, get a
manager involved immediately. They’re dressed more nicely than
you are and are trained in ways to make your guest happy again.
Plus, you’ve got other tables to worry about.

If you get a bad tip, don’t take it personally. Another table’s
good tip will balance it out. I once broke this rule at a
restaurant where I’d been working for four years: I gave the tip
back to the guest and said “thank you” sarcastically. The guest
complained, headquarters got involved, and I got fired – with no
one to blame but myself.

Here are a few tricks to keep your tables happy and your tips
high:

Keep drinks filled. A late entree is more
forgivable when the guests have something to drink in front of
them. There’s no excuse for an empty glass.

Repeat the order. There’s nothing worse
than getting the dish wrong, and guests don’t always know what
they’re doing. Take an extra minute and make sure you know what
they want – and that theyknow what they want.

Listen. If a guest wants to tell you a
joke or a story, stick around and take it in. People come to
restaurants sometimes for the interaction, and it’s your job to
make them feel welcome.

3. Your coworkers are your only friends

No one understands your job more than the people working next to
you. This industry attracts all kinds of people, including those
from wealthy and impoverished backgrounds. This might make you
think you’re smarter than some of them or more important. You’re
not.

Here are a few ways to stay social:

Stay out of drama. If servers are
complaining about each other or about managers, don’t join
in, other than to listen. Word gets around.

Don’t mix business and personal
life. He or she may be really cute, but when
you two break up, the manager will have a hell of a time
figuring out how to schedule you.

Offer help. When someone is “in the
weeds” – lingo for really busy and trying to catch up – they
want nothing else than for someone to help. Offering to carry
a drink to a table will go a long way, and the favor is
likely to be returned.

4. Be a model employee

Some of these tips apply to other industries, but they especially
help you in the restaurant business:

Be on time. Five minutes late could
lose you your section or, worse, your next schedule.

Be clean. Women should wear their hair
tied or cut short. A small amount of makeup makes a world of
difference. Men should shave and have a clean cut.

Never blame the guest. Even if the
guest is wrong, sell it as a “misunderstanding” to your
manager. No one really cares whose fault it is, but rather
the quickest way to solve the problem. Communicate
effectively and propose a way to make the guest happy again.

If you’re going to look for a restaurant job, do it soon. The
National Restaurant Association said that four out of 10 people
agree: They’d use an electronic device – like an iPad – to order their food instead of a
server. The tech isn’t cheap enough yet for that to happen,
according to Mashable, but it won’t be long before it
is. So ironically, if you’re getting into the serving business
because you got laid off elsewhere, it could happen again in
just a few years.